Trial of man accused of drowning children begins today

The murder trial for a Rockville man accused of drowning his three children in a Baltimore hotel room last year continues to slog on as pretrial motions and jury selection have delayed opening arguments until at least today.

The trial for Mark Castillo, 43, had been scheduled to begin Oct. 6 after it had been previously delayed twice to conduct mental evaluations on Castillo to determine if he was fit to stand trial. He has pleaded "not criminally responsible," Maryland's version of the insanity plea, to three counts of first-degree murder.

Castillo is accused of drowning his children  Anthony, 6, Austin, 4, and Athena, 2  in a Marriott Inner Harbor Hotel bathtub in Baltimore on March 29, 2008, hours before he was scheduled to return them to their mother, Amy Castillo, of Silver Spring. He then attempted to kill himself by taking more than 100 Motrin pills and stabbing himself, according to charging documents.

Court proceedings were tied up twice last week, first to address a pretrial motion from Castillo's public defenders that asked to suppress two confessions Castillo allegedly made to police shortly after the incident.

One of those confessions was a video interview between Castillo and a Baltimore City homicide detective taken at Maryland Shock Trauma Center the day after the killings. In the video, which was played in court last week, Castillo outlined how he methodically drowned his three children and laid them out on the hotel bed.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Wanda K. Heard has not yet made a ruling on the video confession, but a ruling was expected Tuesday afternoon or today. Opening arguments can begin once a jury is selected and pretrial motions are resolved.

The public nature of the trial has hindered jury selection, which began Thursday and continued into Tuesday, the day opening arguments had been expected.

Heard screened 145 potential jurors in Baltimore City Circuit Court Thursday. When she described the case and the allegations against Castillo to the potential jurors, she asked those who had read about or knew "anything about the case" to stand. Of the 145 jurors, 127 stood.

Heard told the potential jurors that the trial could last until Oct. 22  and with recent delays, perhaps longer  which also left a number of jurors unavailable to serve due to prior commitments they could not break.

Castillo appeared in court throughout last week, wearing a tan suit and again exhibiting the erratic behavior that has been a staple to his court proceedings. On Oct. 6, he suddenly broke down crying after Heard ordered the shackles he was wearing to be removed. Moments later he was listening attentively when Heard read him his rights for the trial, nodding and saying "Yes, ma'am," when asked if he understood.

Castillo, who has been diagnosed with clinical depression and is taking medication, has undergone several mental evaluations to determine if he is fit to stand trial and whether he could even represent himself, after he asked to fire his counsel last fall.

Defendants may be found not criminally responsible if they are suffering from a mental disorder that prevents them from appreciating the criminality of their actions, according to the state statute. Maryland does not have a traditional insanity defense.